Monday, May 26, 2008

Newton Kansas Court House & Bethel College

Visit Moody's Postcards, your source for vintage, collectible postcards!

Subscribe to Moody's Postcard Blog by Email

In 1872 the city of Newton Kansas was incorporated and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was established here and the town became the rail head for the Chisholm Trail. In 1873, Mennonite settlers from Russia, Switzerland, Germany and Pennsylvania began to arrive in Newton and became an important force within the town. According to the 1910 census, Newton had a population of 7,862 people which grew to 9,781 in the 1930s and today is a little over 17,000. This post card was produced by the E. C. Kropp company in the 1940s and shows the beautiful Harvey County Court House which is quite large for a town this size.

The second postcard of Newton is a circa 1905 Raphael Tuck & Sons postcard view of Bethel College. The Mennonite community was a driving force behind the establishment of this college which had the charter signed in May of 1887, the corner stone for this administration building laid in October 1888 and the college opening on 20 September 1893. The college still thrives today, 115 years later. Both of these postcards can be found in my Kansas listings along with 10,000 additional post cards on my website Moody's Postcards.

No comments: